Steam News has details on a new patch for RAGE that's now automatically available to update id Software's first -person shooter. The lengthy patch notes go into extreme detail on what the patch does, as it offers access to many graphics settings not present in the release version of the game. Here's the into which explains this:

RAGE defaults to lower video settings to allow the game to work on a wide variety of hardware and software configurations. Unfortunately, it is not possible to anticipate all possible graphics driver issues in combination with unique end user hardware and software configurations. For this reason RAGE does not automatically increase video/graphics settings as this could result in negative side effects on specific hardware and software configurations. The original release of RAGE does not expose many video/graphics options for people to tweak because some of these settings, although desirable from a quality perspective, simply will not work on specific configurations either due to hardware limitations and/or driver bugs. Due to popular demand for more video and graphics options, this patch updates the video settings menu and exposes several quality and performance settings. However, not everyone may be able to increase the settings due to hardware limitations and/or driver bugs.

SirKnight wrote on Oct 9, 2011, 18:27:Too bad the radeon driver team can't make a driver to save their ass. ATI drivers have always been pure shit and it's taking id down with it since so many "pc gamers" are complete morons that can't tell the difference between a driver bug and a game bug. On my nvidia setup the game looks and plays perfectly. No crazy tweaking needed either.

I see this defence used a lot, yet many of the users experiencing issues were using nVidia cards.

It makes you wonder what drivers id Software were testing the game with. If they had special drivers then why weren't they released earlier? Afterall, the game was gold for a month before release. And if the drivers were the problem then why didn't id Software fix the problems at their end or pick up the issues sooner? Afterall, most games works just fine out-of-the-box and there are only two graphics manufacturers (ignoring Intel) - SURELY the testing would have highlighted the issues and SURELY something could have been done at their end, or by contacting AMD, to fix them.

RAGE is a pretty game (excluding the overly compressed textures used on objects and indoor scenery) but it just doesn't compare to Borderlands in terms of substance. If RAGE had simply copied Borderlands but with its own setting and engine then it would have been a massive success. Instead, it has a short single-player campaign, very limited co-op and racing for multiplayer - it just doesn't have much longevity. Meanwhile, I can sink 40-50hrs into a playthrough of Borderlands co-op... and then go and do it again and still have a blast, because playing with others makes for a really fun experience.